The Complete Evolution of Halo’s Elites

[Music] the halo series is one of the most recognizable science fiction ips in the modern era with plenty of games books comics and now a tv show to keep fans entertained it's a universe with a lot of appeal but when it comes to the games the secret sauce to a fun experience is the menagerie of creatures the campaigns put the player up against you may know them through viral memes [Music] you may have even maimed them during the days of halo 3 and halo reach on the xbox 360. whatever your story with them in today's evolution video we're going to walk through the history of halo's most important alien the elites if you find yourself enjoying the video consider throwing the youtube algorithm a like subscribe and even share and make sure to check out the evolution of halos grunts the weapons or even some of the call of duty videos once this is over and as is now custom stick around to the end of the video to hear my impression of an elite with that being said let's get started greetings in the late 90s a studio called bungie was making a science fiction adventure set on a mysterious alien ring world many different prototypes and versions of the game existed but one thing always stayed constant human forces found themselves in conflict with the hostile alien army and the design process that eventually led to what was known as the covenant was an iterative one bungie's artists explored many different ideas for the various alien foes the players would be going up against and one of the earliest ideas drawn up was a reptilian creature with three toes a tail and a rather human-like face paul russell one of the men responsible for halo's design language recalls not wanting the elites to look more or less like bipedal geckos and there was also a desire to make them an identifiable silhouette that could fit within the low poly count of the game paul remembers suggesting that the creature have two toes instead of three maybe give the mouth a mandible jaw and even slender hands with long fingers kind of like hr geeker's alien as bungie continued to solidify the alien creatures behind the scenes a temporary version was used for the famous macworld demo of halo it featured bio-mechanical armor and a rather fish-like head this was never intended to be the final design for their alien creature more so just a placeholder so that they had something to show off at conferences but it was an interesting peek into the promise this alien creature had and it's a peak that a lot of fans developed something of a cult following for but for the final game bungie's artists landed on a design that pardon the word was quite literally iconic the elites of halo combat evolved are tall creatures with unique digit grade legs a powerful upper body and long slender necks that often hunch over when engaging in combat when talking to paul he said the idea behind the two different stances was to make the elites appear regal and tall when at ease but once spotting an enemy they'd drop into a predator-like stance ready to pounce elites come in smooth armor that complements their forms giving them a sharp and powerful silhouette with their jet-like and sometimes manta ray-shaped helmets on the legs and arms glowing orange bulbs can be seen these are the body shield generators that the elites use to protect themselves interestingly during development the elites had arm-mounted energy shields to complement their energy swords and these shields could be ignited out of the spines on their sleeves this ability was ultimately cut but the spines can be seen in the final release on certain elite types the elites come in five ranks miners which sport blue armor and are the most common majors which come in red and have stronger shields the elusive stealth elites which use a weaker light blue armor and the spec obsoletes which use dark colors with religious symbols on their bodies the final rank though the zealot wears a beautiful gold color scheme and is often placed in close quarter situations due to the speed at which they can cut down the player with their energy swords what's interesting is that the elite zealots armor appears quite spiky and pointy and this is due to bungie using a low poly elite model which gives it that pointed look the theory behind why bungie may have opted to use the low poly elite is possibly due to how just sharp they look and unless paying close attention players may not even notice how much lower in quality these zealots appear when compared to the others the elites of the first halo game are the backbone of the covenant military in the combat loop they serve the leader role and thus are the most dangerous in any situation like the player they are fast swift and have a protective energy shield of their own that can be drained with plasma shots when getting close the elite will also attempt to melee the player and they can even seek out and drive ghosts or banshees they're the player's evil mirror the alien's own master chief equipped with the same traits and combat abilities save for one key flaw well the player is clear-headed and cool under pressure the covenant elite has a temper that comes out this causes them to roar in anger before charging the player which is the prime opportunity to put them down the elites of halo were an instant hit with fans terrifying young gamers throughout the first level's careful introduction and providing much laughter through their memorable quotes which were derived from reversed human lines whether they knew it or not bungie created a gaming icon an enemy that would go up there with goombas bokoblins and headcrabs in terms of popularity their journey began here and the first step in halo combat evolved was a confident and solid one the story of halo combat evolved was incredibly simplistic and didn't paint and things other than broad strokes and it was effective as an action shooter once it was complete bungie was ready to move on to new projects but the success they accidentally created meant a sequel was demanded of them the first game was a primarily human focused adventure with the alien covenant being firmly at the end of the player's barrel and so for the sequel bungie opened the door on the covenant their culture their beliefs and of course what drove the beings that made halo 1 so memorable the elites the elites of halo 2 are a significant upgrade in detail over the first game what was once just implied detail with low poly counts and simple texture work was now highly defined and the shield generators on their arms and legs now lit up in real time dimming or glowing in response to the elite's shield situation their animation work was also updated with new more expressive idol and fidget animations though it should be said their new run animation is a tad softer looking when compared to the original game's wide-legged jog it gives the halo 2 elites a cute little shuffle when in motion but something could be said about this just adding to their charm alongside the new animations came a new set of voice lines due to the game wanting the player to empathize and understand what goes on in the enemy's head the demon is here the elites are expressive charismatic and readable during the gameplay of halo 2 and speaking of the gameplay during development halo 2's combat was quite different from the free-flowing first game drawing inspiration from market trends at the time bungie wanted the sequel to be a bit more of a tactical shooter the elites were primarily designed as an enemy that would push back on the player and force them to seek cover with fast-moving projectiles and suppressive capabilities plans did change during development and for the final game bungie had to dramatically scale back the amount of ai in a location at any given time as well as the complexity in the environments in their cover with no time to really retune the ai behaviors for the new scaled down environments and reworked player mechanics the elites of halo 2 often come off as both more aggressive and less responsive in wide open spaces they provide very little breathing room for the player to dodge attacks and when there was cover for the player the elites would become too fixated on the player's last known position allowing themselves to be easily flanked the combat may have been rough for halo 2 but the story was less so telling the story of an elite commander who failed to protect the first game's halo disgraced and stripped of his rank he became the arbiter an agent of the covenant's religious leaders adorning his disgraced body and unique religious armor and throughout the story he'd uncover the truth about halo's purpose and the great light that the covenant religion was built upon the player could even encounter new armor types in the story that showed different aspects of the covenant and elite culture such as the industrial mining equipment donned by the heretic elites the regal headdresses of the elite councillors or even the religious and extravagant vestments of the prophet's honor guards the elites were a loyal and intelligent race that were deliberately blinded by the manipulative covenant prophets and by the end of the campaign the arbiter had renounced the covenant and found allies in humanity as he sought to end the prophet's control of his species and prevent the firing of halo it was a powerful commentary on the dangers of religious fanaticism and the themes of rebirth and redemption are things halo 2 did quite well but the elites were more than just an emotionally complex alien race because in the game's multiplayer they'd become a vehicle that the players could inhabit offering their own set of first-person animations and heads-up displays now it was spartan vs elite and playable elites became a staple of the series one that would go on to become just another way for stories and gameplay experiences to be enjoyed within the halo franchise halo 2 was a game that bungie wasn't very proud of but like most works of art these things tend to develop a reputation that transcends what the developers feel halo 2 was a fantastic game and the depth it gave to the elite serves the franchise to this day but what are your thoughts on the halo 2 elites in 2007 the finale to the halo trilogy was released on the xbox 360. it was the biggest halo release at the time featuring more enemies an expanded suite of community features such as the groundbreaking theater mode and forge modes an extensive file share system and a bigger scale with the power that the new console provided with the main story of halo 2 revolving around the elites rising above their manipulative religious masters the story of halo 3 saw these once iconic enemies not as foes but as brothers in humanity's efforts to prevent the firing of halo partnering up with the master chief the arbiter was a companion in the game's campaign and when playing in co-op up to three other players could inhabit the role of chief's new elite allies as they took the fight to the covenant thanks to the increased horsepower of the new console many modifications were made to the armors of the elites adding more detail and bulking it up to make them a bit less slender and a bit more in line with spartan players for the game's multiplayer balancing the standard jet like helmet that the elites are known for was giving quite a lot of love further expanding on its design to give the elite heads an even sharper look and for the arbiter himself his armor saw minor changes in the form of new mandible guards and more detail interestingly due to halo 3's lighting engine his armor often appears to be almost bronze which has led the community to interpret it as a deliberate color change but this isn't the case it's just a fluke of the lighting engine like most aliens in halo 3 composer and audio director marty o'donnell wanted the elites to sound a bit more well alien so the elite vocal cords received an otherworldly warble this new filter that marty designed for the elites made the english words they spoke sound as if they were coming from extraterrestrial tongues it was an effect that bungie continued to use for the rest of their reign on the series and it helped the alien beings of the halo universe seem otherworldly then it is an even fight all cruises fire at will burn their mongrel hides when looking at the bodies of the elites themselves in halo 3 not much has actually changed you just see an increase in detail but when you combine the new bulky armor with the rather squashed stance that they now have and the rather at times unpolished walk cycle the halo 3 elites often felt a bit more like a giant goofy teddy bear version of an elite than the agile and powerful beings from the first two games how are they in gameplay though well due to their role as allies in the campaign friendly elite ai can also accompany the players alongside marine ai in combat these elites are noticeably different from past incarnations they're less lethal and impactful in combat as to not step on the player's toes too much though understandable from game design terms it does lead to the elites just feeling a bit toothless in combat in the multiplayer playable elites benefited greatly from the brand new armor customization system letting players mix and match armors that ranged from all the titles you add some armors from halo 2 as well as brand new armors for the elites such as the ascetic armor or commando armor now the commando armor has a bit of an interesting history to it bungie initially tied this armor's access to a killing frenzy achievement in the game's multiplayer due to a typo on bungie's part in the game's code this armor wouldn't unlock for those who got the achievement and due to strict file restrictions when patching games bungie couldn't fix this bug with nothing else to do at a later date bungie opted to simply allow all players to have access to the commando armor for free it was quite an exciting moment for the community what was less exciting was an oversight that inadvertently led to the elites being somewhat overpowered in the game's multiplayer the elites of halo 3 have different hitboxes to the spartans which in general makes headshots harder to achieve when their back faces the player but a specific helmet the assault helmet has a gap between the head and body where bungie forgot to include a hitbox it's a very odd oversight that was left unfixed in the game and sparked many wars within the community over if playable elites were overpowered which when wearing this helmet i think the answer is definitively yes halo 3 was the finale to bungie's halo trilogy with the death of the final prophet at the arbiter's hand the elite's destiny was back in their hands there would be much hardship on the road ahead as they picked up what remained of their culture and attempted to rebuild but for now in halo 3 the elites were victorious and free standing side by side with humanity they began as foes but through the sacred halo rings these two opposing races became brothers i remember how this war started what your kind did to mine i can't forgive you but you have my thanks for standing by him to the end hard to believe he's dead were it so easy it's easy to forget but following the release of halo 3 elites had been mostly phased out as primary antagonists being usurped by the brutes in halo's combat loop outside of halo wars the elites had taken on a heroic role in players eyes this all changed with the release of bungie's farewell to the series halo reach it was a technological leap for the series running on a more advanced version of bungie's halo engine and with that new technology came an increase in quality infusing halo's most iconic beings with a level of detail higher than any game previously the elites of halo reach are a substantial increase in quality with more polygons sharper textures and an emphasis on the size and strength of these terrifying aliens their mandibles are permanently fixed in a smear while powerful muscles and veins ripple under their skin in a nod to halo combat evolved their eyes were also returned to a cold black color and their teeth were made sharper all in all it was a more aggressive look for the elites moving away from that soft teddy bear vibe that their halo 3 incarnations gave off their armor was also noticeably toned down removing much of the bulk from halo 3 and placing more emphasis on their flexibility and speed which was helped by a series of new more expressive animations both in third and in first person in the game's campaign and firefight modes the elites returned to the role they last inhabited in 2004's halo 2 as the covenant's leader enemy type unlike halo 2 however these elites were faster more aggressive and more numerous sporting a variety of new weapons and unit types such as the new officer and field marshal ranks while returning ranks such as the ultra and spec ops saw completely new armors being given to them but most interestingly of all in the missions of halo reach's campaign players may notice unique elites adorned in gold or white colored armor that don't match their rank these are the bobs in every mission of the campaign a bobbly has a chance of spawning in a variety of locations once alerted to the player they will try to make a quick escape and if you're fast enough killing them can nab an achievement following bungie's desire to make halo reach a grimmer and more serious halo game than ever before the covenant all now speak in alien tongues giving them a distant and less personable presentation elites will chatter amongst themselves and bark orders that only those who speak the covenant language can understand the elites of reach are also considerably more aggressive and reactive to the player during gameplay dodging far more often and sprinting at a speed faster than previous games their speed often makes them quite hard to keep up with during gunfights as they backpedal at speeds faster than the player while having full weapon capabilities this combined with the higher density of enemy combatants leads to the campaign devolving into more of a shooting gallery than the classic combat dance the series was known for playable elites of course also returned in the game's multiplayer mode allowing players to wage war against the unsc in the asymmetrical invasion game type and various other game modes such as elite slayer playable elites have roughly 9 extra shield points and five extra health points over spartan players and they move faster while having the ability to regenerate their health without the need for med kits this comes at the cost of being a much bigger target than spartan players taking shots far more often and making cover a scarcer resource bungie's final goodbye to the halo series left players with an incredible experience the elites were back in force for the game's campaign with an incredible design and presence their appearance in multiplayer was bolstered with the much-loved invasion game type and for years following the game's release the game's extensive social systems allowed halo's playable elite community to organize form clans recruit members and launch raids against spartan clans it was a golden age for halo's elites easily their prime but like all golden ages they don't last darkness was on the horizon for the elites of halo but for now the playerbase simply enjoyed one of the best halo releases in the series [Music] bungie's run on halo left incredibly large shoes to fill and a player base that was enjoying the biggest content release for any halo title with halo reach but behind the scenes a new studio 343 industries was crafting a new vision for the halo universe ditching much of the anime influences in favor of a more detailed and technically complex spin one that was rooted in a photorealistic modern sci-fi art style during production many different designs were explored for the covenant but ultimately a very insect slash beetle-like focus was chosen welcome to the elites of the reclaimer saga the elites were adorned in very abstract shell-like armor ditching the sleek religious and anime style that complemented their bodies in the bungee games their bodies were also redesigned to appear more monstrous and detailed their incredibly bright and pale skin were covered in crusty scabs and calluses and their necks and heads were designed to be less familiar to players and a bit more alien and monstrous with a thick layer of muscle and bone carrying the rather small sickly looking face a tongue was also considered for the elites and even appeared on early models during the game's development with animations and all but this was thankfully cut prior to release during gameplay the elites of halo 4 are more or less familiar if you've played halo reach moving with the same speed and mechanical quirks introduced in that game such as sprinting backwards while firing their weapons but due to the xbox 360's aging hardware a lack of familiarity with the engine and the visual fidelity the new developer was trying to push sacrifices had to be made animation quality and ai intelligence seems to have been toned down across the board making the elite seem less expressive and reactive during gameplay the elites of halo 4 come off as more robotic and less life-like when compared to previous installments but it doesn't stop the production value from being quite high in other areas with plenty of canned animation sprinkled throughout the levels such as elites interacting with computers crawling to their deaths and other activities the elites of halo 4 also still speak in alien tongues but it should be noted this fictional language is not the same one from halo reach the new developer also remembered to include the voice filter that marty introduced in halo 3 and they put it to good effect keep telling you people i don't speak senior was a different look and style for the elites and it was a bit divisive in the community with many disliking the more brutish look and presentation these once honorable warriors had this stigma was unfortunately made worse by the game's spartan ops mode where the production company behind its animated cutscenes axe studios seems to have misunderstood the elite's animation style and chose to animate them as lumbering heavy monsters with sluggish reaction time and weighty movements but what was more controversial than the new design was 343's choice to not let players customize and take their own elites into online matchmaking due to lack of enthusiasm from the studio playable elites were completely gutted when asked why 343 was stripping a staple feature of the series that served the player base well during the bunch of years then studio had josh holmes justified the choice by explaining that it was due to the studio wanting to focus on the multiplayer's new story players training to become spartans in simulated battle arenas it was a pretty weak excuse that didn't do much to reassure halo's elite community that they weren't being left behind this caused most of the playable elite community to simply migrate back to reach a game that by their standards had more content and allowed them to thrive together by the end of halo 4's lifespan a majority of the halo community had also shifted back to the previous title but that's a story for another day halo 4's elites unfortunately carried a certain stigma within the community their gameplay and animation quality felt like a regression from previous titles the studio's lack of interest in playable elites definitely was a sore spot and their narrative presentation often made them appear more monstrous and lumbering but where halo 4's elites truly shined was in the previously mentioned spartan ops mode spartan ops told a dual story of heroes and villains fighting for control of forerunner artifacts following the events of the game's campaign the newly formed covenant was led by an elite in unique black armor who believed the key to godhood was not the activation of halo but rather the weaponization of the forerunner's long abandoned artifacts this black elite was manipulated by the creator of the spartans catherine halsey who had her own agenda for the forerunner technology and when the forerunner world found itself hurtling towards a sun in spartan ops's climax the two were forced to flee the doomed world the story provided quite a lot of insight into the post-trilogy elite culture and that the arbiter's vision of a unified elite species might be harder to achieve than he realized companion books to halo 4 such as the kilo 5 trilogy described a desire by humanity's office of naval intelligence to prevent the elites from building their society back up elite terrorist cells were being secretly supplied with weapons and supplies by oni in order to ensure the elites couldn't rebuild into a place of power tension was brewing in the fractured and scattered elite species and in the next game that tension would erupt into a violent civil war [Music] following the events of halo 4's spartan ops mode the various covenant splinter groups fell into further decay in infighting but this civil war wasn't just within the elite species the milky way galaxy as a whole was turning against itself with humanity's own ai systems rising up against their creators 2015's halo 5 guardians dropped players into a galaxy on the verge of total collapse and the elites were at the center of it the elites of halo 5 retained their halo 4 appearance and armor albeit with upgraded materials shading and production value their skin received some much-needed darkening ditching that pale sickly look in the previous game and they were given the ability to speak in languages players could understand allowing them once again to verbalize their anger and thoughts during gameplay though it should be mentioned 343 seems to have forgotten to give the elites their alien vocal cord filter which leads the elites of halo 5 to sound more or less like pitched down human voice actors rather than the alien beings they is are in combat we will escort you to him a small disappointment but easy to overlook their animations were also carried over from halo 4 mostly unchanged but due to halo 5's over optimization all entities beyond just a few meters of the player update at a lower frame rate than the game's target frame rate this can cause the already stiff looking halo 4 animations to become even stiffer and more rigid the game's enhanced mobility mechanics and squad mechanics also further altered how they behaved in combat forcing the developers to make elites more accurate and less mobile as to not clutter up the battlefields too much and with a strong helping of pathfinding issues especially in the game's warzone mode it's easy to see why players regard these as the dumbest elites in the franchise even beating out halo 4 unfortunately definitely a downgrade from previous installments but it's not all bad because speaking of elites from previous installments when the players find themselves on the elite homeworld of saint helios a single faction of unfc friendly elites stand between freedom and the return of the covenant and this faction was led by none other than the arbiter himself using the halo 4 elite model as a template character artist colby jukes crafted a beautiful set of armor adorning the aged elite warrior in ceremonial golden metal and straps building off the look from halo 3 and giving his new armor an ancient and more important look to elite culture and even though they forgot for the rest of the elites 343 remembered to give arbiter his alien vocal chord vibrations out of the shadows the spies announce themselves now agent arbiter's friendly faction the swords of sang helios use red and white color schemes and are often found with sleeved bodysuits to help separate them from the bluish sleeveless covenant splinter groups like in halo 3 these friendly elites will assist players on the battlefield you can trade weapons with them you can talk to them and during certain non-combat levels in the campaign players could listen in on conversations of arbiter's elites and see the differences his progressive vision for saint helios brought such as the introduction of medical surgeons or even allowing female elites to serve and become ship mistresses captains of their own ship in the game's war zone multiplayer experience the players could fight both covenant and enemy spartans and for this mode the rules of engagement were slightly different due to the scale of the mode the ai behaviors of the covenant were paired back significantly making them much less responsive than normal and due to the overwhelming number of players their health and damage were also scaled appropriately so that even an elite minor was enough to kill a skilled player despite this not being the optimal way to judge halo 5's ai in combat the warzone experience did bring with it a variety of interesting and unique boss elites such as the meme worthy tank master rock who is often found on the beach and even then in a post-launch dlc map set on sanghelios the black elite himself julem dama could spawn armed with a special covenant carbine variant halo 5 would be the final game in the reclaimer saga its campaign and pve combat loop was quite divisive at the time and studio's continued lack of enthusiasm or interest in playable elites remained a sore spot for players but most would agree if the game's elites had any strengths it was the peak into their world and culture something halo hadn't done since halo 2 like halo 2 halo 5 further humanized and expanded the world of halo's famous alien race and even if the multiplayer team continued to turn their nose up at the community or the design maybe wasn't to your liking what halo 5 did for the elites benefited the franchise the anime driven halo legend series had many different portrayals of the elites some short stories sport designs more familiar to halo fans while other short stories such as the duel drew heavy inspiration from samurai and the duel used it to great effect painting a beautifully haunting story of an elite who dared to defy the covenant but at a great cost tales such as halo evolutions were more grounded within the history of the human covenant war treating the elite says alien and the enemy unless there was a need for cooperation such as in the horrifying story the mona lisa bungie may have been the start of the halo franchise but it wasn't until the cult classic halo wars when another studio's take on the elites could be experienced due to its rts nature the game adopted a rather exaggerated visual style with extreme proportions and designs the elites of halo wars prior to release were perhaps a bit too exaggerated looking a bit more like a party balloon animal the final game rained them in a bit and provided gamers with an incredibly likable spin on the bungie era elites the game's main villain was the arbiter but not the one that we know and love this arbiter's face droops in a dog-like fashion and curls into a sneer when anchored his unique scowl and towering presence made him a fan favorite elite that is still cherished to this day what was less cherished was the now over a decade old remaster of halo combat evolved which opted to re-envision the art style of the first game rather than remaster it draping the 2001 shooter in a mismatch of assets that ranged from halo 3 to halo reach the halo reach elites proved a poor fit for the animation rigs of the first halo game and failed to capture the same majesty making the elite seem squashed and bloated thankfully with halo 2 anniversary much more effort and care was taken in preserving the original game spirit the elites of halo 2 anniversary were designed to be more human-like with less alien faces slimmer less broad bodies and seeming less flexible and animated in the game's hyper-realistic cutscenes but it was a look that was well received by the community nostalgically contrasting against the newer reclaimer saga design which was used in the multiplayer portion of halo 2 anniversary and even the live action promotional films forward unto dawn and halo nightfall the halo 2 anniversary elite would even go on to be prominently featured in the sequel to halo wars which had cutscenes done by the same production company blur studios interestingly though during gameplay both halo 2 anniversary and reclaimer saga elites are used much like the reclaimer saga grunt halo wars 2's art team touched up the model modifying the limbs and armor to make it a bit more palatable for halo fans who disliked that design in halo 4 and 5. now outside of the main games the arbiter made a surprise appearance in the 2013 fighter killer instinct in this game players could change not just the arbiter's body type but his armor too mixing and matching armors from halo 3 all the way to halo 5. in order to make sure the two different elite bodies worked on a single animation rig modifications were made to the bodies slimming down the reclaimer saga elite and broadening out they looked too anniversary elite it created two incredibly well received versions of these elite designs another example of modifications made to halo 2 anniversary's elite model would be most recently in halo the series from paramount plus and 343 in this live action adaptation the elites are quite different from any previous incarnation sporting an almost bull like body with small hooves and a burly upper chest their bodies were protected in an almost medieval beetle-like armor but if you want a very different take on the elites we need to go back in time and explore the cancelled halo movie from the early 2000s this movie's production is a fascinating read but among the surviving remnants of the project is the design for halo's iconic hinge heads the halo movie is an interesting what if and one thing is for certain it was a weird what if almost as weird though as a cancelled free-to-play russian halo title by the name of halo online it was designed on the halo 3 version of the halo engine and directed at russian pc audiences to test the waters in that market it was ultimately cancelled but it didn't stop many of its assets from making their way over and finding a new home in the master chief collection not only were various armors from these elites brought over the elites of halo 3 themselves received updated bodies and hand models in the fan favorite collection the love didn't stop there though because 343's live team also brought halo 3's elites over to odst's fire fight and made their ai hostile they're clearly rough around the edges being designed as friendly ai in the halo 3 campaign but you know what it was something 343's live team went out of their way to do and that love didn't go unappreciated and now it's time to look towards the present at the time of writing halo infinite is the latest entry in the halo series set after the events of a human civil war humanity finds itself picking up the pieces and racing to rebuild their defenses as the enemy of halo wars 2 the banished come out on top as a galactic threat a key part of halo infinite's design was returning halo back to its traditional style not just mechanically but artistically as well many returning creatures and halo infinite saw fresher more familiar designs much to the fanbase's delight but one of the most celebrated of these redesigns was the new design for the elites most anticipated 343 would just reuse the halo 2 anniversary designs but instead they opted to craft a completely new elite one that was inspired by the many designs and interpretations the elites went through over halo's long reign there's a bit of reach and halo 2 in the face a dash of halo 4 in the hands and of course removing much of the bulk from the reclaimer saga bodies slimming things down and giving the fans what many regard as the coolest design for the elites in the franchise [Music] their armors just like the bodies were infused with the history of halo certain armors were directly inspired by concept art from halo titles such as halo reach other armors were recreations of fan favorite legacy designs while others such as the general refusion between reclaimer saga and reach designs due to the open world nature of halo infinite many adjustments were made to the ai for the most part the ai for the banish worked quite well elites were more responsive to players than previous 343 halo titles and with a whole host of much more expressive lively animations the elites of halo infinite felt like a true extension of where they began in combat evolved when wandering the open world the elites have their shields down resting and relaxing but upon sighting the player they'll charge up their shields and engage in combat and while 343 seems to have once again forgotten to give the elites their voice filter introduced in halo 3. all cruises fire at will burn their mongrel hides you talk too much hey look at that halo infinite has an easter egg about me they're quite fun to listen to the narrative even saw the player face off against many elite antagonist characters such as the fan favorite torturer and the bloodthirsty blade master who is something of an enigma in elite culture after sustaining horrible injuries this elite defied the tradition of dying with honor and chose to fuse flesh with machine becoming a deranged and sadistic cyborg one that would be a thorn in the chief side during the campaign the elites of halo infinite's campaign were very well received by the halo community especially those who found previous 343 attempts at doing the elites a bit lacking like most things however there are a few downsides due to the tools and limitations of the slip space engine designers had very little control over the behavior of ai causing the enemies to quite often just hitch up and get confused when presented with obstacles or put into situations they weren't designed for while smart the elites of halo infinite can quite often just get stuck when in the open world or outside of proper levels and even occasionally they can engage the player in intense staring contests ai hiccups in open world games are thankfully easy to overlook for the most part 343 had knocked it out of the park but what's less easy to overlook is 343 repeating a mistake they probably should have known better than to repeat prior to release former sandbox lead quindel hoyo confirmed that once again the studio had no plans to bring back playable elites justifying the choice by saying they wanted the multiplayer to be a spartan experience and like the excuse given by josh holmes a decade ago this excuse was quite weak being seen as a justification for scaling down the halo social experience rather than expanding it like the bungie titles did at the time of writing halo infinite has a long road ahead of it the campaign was quite well received but the multiplayer portion is a fraction of what some of halo's best multiplayer outings were in not just content maps and stability but community features and customization options given how well-received the design was in infinite by the fans perhaps someday the studio will finally return them to the player's hands halos elites are such an iconic part of the franchise one has to wonder if the team at bungie all those years ago understood the cultural impact of the monster they were designing for their humble sci-fi game and here in the modern year the elites have appeared in not just every halo title released but featured in countless books comics and now a fully fledged halo tv show wherever the elites go next it'll be interesting to follow their journey and see where the wind takes them what's your favorite incarnation of the elites what would you like the next evolution video to be on let me know in the comments down below and of course sharing and liking these videos does wonders for the algorithm and helps the channel grow and now it's time for my best elite impressions the hunters have come to our aid arbiter they will fight by our side

Channel: Late Night Gaming

Views: 455,508

Keywords: Halo, Gaming, LateNightGaming, Examining Games, Commentary, LNG, Late Night Gaming, Halo 5, Game discussion, Halo PC, MCC PC, MCC mods, Halo mods, Halo Infinite, Infinite, MCC, Master Chief Collection, Halo Infinite Banished, Halo Banished, Halo evolution, Evolution of Elites, Halo Elites, Halo show elites

Id: 9Fm23TJRwsA

Length: 41min 28sec (2488 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 03 2022